Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I previously blogged Nuju Metru's (aka John Lennon's) series of Fellowship of the Rings sets. Now he's completed his series of Two Towers sets (these can be seen on Flickr and Brickshelf). BTW, he notes that he started this project back before LEGO even announced the license.

First up we see the Dead Marshes. With Frodo, Sam, Gollum, the Ring and some modular marsh bits, he imagines this at a $12 price point.
A cute feature of this set is the pop-up corpse from the Last Alliance.

Next up is Treebeard Encounter with Merry, Pippin and a brick-built Ent, all for $20. I have to agree that this is the huge missed opportunity in the actual sets that have been released so far. I still hope that we'll see a Treebeard in a future wave of sets, but it may be that they're done with sets from the Two Towers.
Note that hinges and ball joints give Treebeard great poseability.

Edoras as the 'big' set at $70. This includes the still-missing figs of Eowyn, Wormtounge and Gandalf the White.
With removable roof and modular construction, this Meduseld has great playability.

Warg Skirmish at $12. While I'm unhappy with Peter Jackson for creating this scene, Nuju Metru's LEGO rendition is superb. The Wargs are at a good scale and seem like something that could really appear in a set. Perhaps Legolas should be in this set, since he is nowhere else in this wave of sets from Nuju Metru.

Ruin of Osgiliath at $50. Another great rendition of a Peter Jackson fabrication. I really like the version of Faramir here, and that fell beast is amazing.
I assume there will be a fell beast in the Return of the King wave - surely in a set with Eowyn confronting the Witch King. I hope LEGO's version is brick-built (rather than being a single-use mold) and is as cool as this one.

Looking at this series as a whole, I do think there are a couple of obvious holes here if this were to be the actual run of Two Towers sets, in that Nuju Metru does not include either Helm's Deep, which was the focus of the official line, or Shelob (though a quick double check on Wikipedia reminds me that the movie version actually ended just before Shelob, which makes this version true to the movies). On the other hand, Nuju Metru includes Treebeard and Edoras, which don't seem to be part of LEGO's plans (again, I'm assuming that a fell beast will be in an upcoming wave of sets). I think a combination of Nuju Metru's sets and the official sets would be the ideal release. Again, LEGO, hire this guy as a set designer.

Here's looking forward to a Return of the King series from Nuju Metru!

Some details are coming out about the upcoming LEGO: Lord of the Rings video game. A recent screening for members of the press showed scenes from Moria. As with the other LEGO games, you can play different characters, each with special abilities. One interesting note is that they will use dialogue taken from the movies - they specifically noted Ian McKellen's voice declaring 'You shall not pass!' to the Balrog. I'm interested to see how they depict the Balrog, as I still think they should create a set around that passage.

Via Brickset, LEGO is going to release two polybag sets: 30210, Frodo with Cooking Corner and 30211, Uruk Hai with Ballista. No word on when these will be released. The Frodo one seems a bit of a throw-away to me, since Frodo is already in the cheapest set, but I do appreciate that they put a Hobbit in his most natural setting. The Uruk Hai one, on the other hand, will be quite popular with army builders.